Key Knicks forward ruled out for Game 7 vs. Pacers

As we relayed Friday night, the statuses of Knicks forwards OG Anunoby and Josh Hart are both in the air, but multiple outlets say the outlook for either being able to play and give 100% in Sunday’s Game 7 against the Pacers isn’t great.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (h/t to New York Post’s Stefan Bondy), the Knicks have already ruled out Anunoby for Game 7. The Knicks are 1-3 this postseason without Anunoby and are 14-18 in total without him in the lineup since acquiring him compared to 26-5 with him in the lineup.

Hart, the Knicks' iron man, motioned to the sideline and asked to leave Game 6 in the first quarter. As we wrote, he eventually came back in, but according to Yahoo Sports’ Jake Fischer, he clutched his abdomen with every downbeat of the game.

“You never wanna see anybody get hurt, but it’s been our season,” Donte DiVincenzo said. “We have more than enough, whoever’s on the court. I’ve said it 100 times.”

As The Athletic’s Fred Katz writes, just this playoff run, the Knicks have lost Mitchell Robinson and Bojan Bogdanovic to season-ending injuries, Anunoby to his current hamstring strain, and Jalen Brunson briefly with a foot issue. Now there’s Hart, who had previously appeared in 81/82 regular season games and all 12 of New York’s playoff games. Spotrac’s Keith Smith points out the Knicks are down to just four healthy players who played in the opening postseason game against the Sixers: Brunson, DiVincenzo, Isaiah Hartenstein and Miles McBride (Twitter link).

Reserves Alec Burks and Precious Achiuwa have become key reserves during the latter half of this playoff run and New York may need to go even deeper into its roster if Hart isn’t good to go. Jericho Sims, Shake Milton, DaQuan Jeffries and Mamadi Diakite are New York’s only other healthy roster pieces.

For what it’s worth, several Knicks players seemed optimistic about the chances of Hart playing. As Katz writes, Hart has played more than any other player in the league in the postseason and had a stretch of five games where he averaged more than 48 minutes per game.

“Just knowing him, he’ll do whatever to play. If his leg’s not falling off I can probably say he’ll probably play,” Hartenstein said. “I haven’t talked to him. We’ll see. It’s hard. He’s done so much for us this season.”

In 12 playoff games, Hart has averaged 14.9 points, 11.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists, though he was held to five points, eight rebounds and three assists on Friday.

“There’s a lot of things obviously that physically don’t go our way with our team this year,” Brunson said. “I think our main focus is whoever we have out there, regardless of what you’re dealing with or anything — if you are out there, you are ready to go. Yes, Josh asked to come back out, but he went back in and gives everything he has. What more can you ask for from a teammate? Knowing the situation, we’re just going to have each other’s backs.”